The Sri Lankan Navy said yesterday that at least two fishermen were killed
and three others injured while the Navy thwarted an attempted sea movement by
Tamil Tiger rebels in the eastern seas.
Navy spokesman Commander D. K. P. Dassanayake said Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) rebels shot dead the two fishermen at Thiriyaya area in the eastern
Trincomalee district in a clash with the Navy's ground troops in the early hours
of yesterday.
The civilians were killed or injured when the rebels fired at their fishing
huts, said Dassanayake.
The shooting came after the Navy intercepted a flotilla of rebel boats
numbering 21 in the seas off Pulmoddai at around 11:30pm local time Friday.
Dassanayake said the Navy destroyed at least two of the 21 boats while six
others were badly damaged, adding that more than 10 LTTE rebels might have been
killed in the clash.
Dassanayake said it was a major movement of the trapped senior rebels from
Eastern Province to the LTTE held Mullaithivu district and the Navy was
successful in preventing the movement from taking place.
The Navy and LTTE rebels often clash in the northern and eastern seas.
More than 67,000 people have been killed in Sri Lanka's long drawn-out
conflict since the mid-1980s.
The LTTE has been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and
east since 1970s.
